On April 14, 1930, in Moscow, in the apartment of 12 building No. 3 on Lubyansky passage, the body of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky was found. The cause of death was suicide.

Unrequited love

During his life, Mayakovsky had many novels, although he was never officially married. Among his lovers there were many Russian emigrants - Tatyana Yakovleva, Ellie Jones. The most serious hobby in Mayakovsky’s life was an affair with Lily Brik. Despite the fact that she was married, the relationship between them remained for many years. Moreover, the poet lived in the same house with the Brik family for a long period of his life. This love triangle existed for several years until Mayakovsky met the young actress Veronika Polonskaya, who at that time was 21 years old. Neither the difference in age of 15 years, nor the presence of an official spouse could prevent this connection. It is known that the poet planned a life together with her and strongly insisted on a divorce. This story led to the official version of suicide. On the day of his death, Mayakovsky received a refusal from Veronica, which provoked, as many historians claim, a serious nervous shock that led to such tragic events. In any case, the Mayakovsky family, including his mother and sisters, believed that the blame for his death lies precisely with Polonskaya.

Mayakovsky left a suicide note as follows: “EVERYONE

Do not blame anyone for dying and please do not gossip. The dead man did not like this terribly. Forgive my mom sisters and comrades - this is not a way (I do not advise others), but I have no way out. Lily - love me. Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya. “If you give them a decent life, thank you.” Start the poems give Briks they will understand. As they say - “the incident is spoiled”, the love boat crashed into the way I live with life and there is nothing to list the mutual pains, troubles and insults. Happy to stay

VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY.

Mental trauma

As one of the theories of suicide, historians also consider difficult emotional experiences. 1930 was not too successful for the poet. Firstly, he was ill a lot. Secondly, Mayakovsky was harshly criticized, believing that he had already completely "signed up". Local newspapers saw him as an anti-Soviet writer. At one of the meetings with readers, which took place 2 days before the fateful event, he heard many unflattering reviews addressed to him. Mayakovsky himself during this period considered himself deeply unhappy. Therefore, this version has a right to exist. In many historical works one can find information that it was the oppressed emotional state together with the failed love that caused such an act.

Erratic connections have contributed to the emergence of a version of syphilis, which could cause suicide. But most researchers disprove this hypothesis, arguing that such a loving person like Mayakovsky could not take his own life just because of this disease. And there is no official evidence that the poet was really sick. After the death of the poet, the forensics insisted on a second autopsy in order to finally convince themselves of the failure of this version.

Political motives

There were also rumors that the poet was killed for ideological reasons. Some believed that Mayakovsky, with his rebellious character, posed a danger to the Soviet regime. Indeed, in recent years he could afford unflattering remarks, but this does not apply to his death. The kill version has no basis. The fact that the poet shot himself was officially confirmed by the forensics.

This happened on April 14, 1930 in Moscow, in the Lubyansky passage. In the working room of Vladimir Mayakovsky, a shot rang out. The debate whether the poet passed away voluntarily or was killed has not subsided so far.
  One of its participants, a professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Sechenov MMA named after Alexander Vasilievich Maslov, talks about a virtuoso investigation of experts.

Versions and Facts

On April 14, 1930, Krasnaya Gazeta reported: “Today, at 10 hours and 17 minutes, Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide in his working room with a shot from a gun in the heart region. The ambulance arrived and found him already dead. In recent days, V.V. Mayakovsky did not reveal any spiritual discord and did not portend a catastrophe. ”
In the afternoon, the body was transported to the poet’s apartment in Hendrikov Lane. The sculptor K. Lutsky removed the posthumous mask, and it was bad - he stripped the deceased person's face. The employees of the Brain Institute removed Mayakovsky’s brain, which weighed 1700. On the very first day, professor Talalay autopsy performed a pathologist in the prefecture of the clinic of the medical faculty of Moscow State University, and on the night of April 17, he underwent an autopsy: because of creeping rumors about a venereal disease allegedly from the poet, which were not confirmed. Then the body was cremated.

As with Yesenin, Mayakovsky's suicide caused a different reaction and many versions. One of the "targets" was the 22-year-old actress of the Moscow Art Theater Veronica Polonskaya. It is known that Mayakovsky asked her to become a wife. She was the last person who saw the poet alive. However, the testimony of the actress, her roommates and the investigation data indicate that the shot rang out right after Polonskaya left Mayakovsky’s room. So she couldn’t shoot.

The version that Mayakovsky, not in a figurative, but in the literal sense of the word "lay down on the barrel", put a bullet in his head, does not hold water. The poet’s brain has been preserved to this day and, as the staff of the Brain Institute rightly said in those days, “according to the external examination, the brain does not represent any significant deviations from the norm.”
  A few years ago, in the program "Before and after midnight," the well-known television journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested that in the posthumous photograph on the chest of Mayakovsky the traces of TWO shots are clearly visible.

This dubious hypothesis was dispelled by another journalist, V. Skoryatin, who conducted a rigorous investigation. There was one shot, but he also believes that they shot. Specifically, the head of the secret department of the OGPU Agranov, with whom, by the way, the poet was friends: hiding in the utility room and waiting for Polonskaya to leave, Agranov enters the office, kills the poet, leaves a dying letter and goes out into the street again. And then he rises to the scene as a security officer. The version is entertaining and almost fits into the laws of that time. However, without knowing it, the journalist unexpectedly helped experts. Mentioning the shirt that was on the poet at the time of the shot, he writes: “I examined it. And even with the help of a magnifier I did not find any traces of a powder burn. There is nothing on it but a brown stain of blood. " So the shirt has been preserved!

Poet's shirt

Indeed, in the mid-1950s, L.Yu. Brik, who had the poet’s shirt, handed it to the State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky - the relic was stored in a box and was wrapped in paper impregnated with a special compound. On the left side of the front of the shirt is through damage, dried blood is visible around it. Surprisingly, this “material evidence” was not subjected to examination either in 1930 or later. And how many disputes were around the photos!
  Having received permission to study, without dedicating to the gist of the matter, I showed the shirt to a major forensic expert E.G. Safronsky, who immediately made a "diagnosis": "Entrance bullet gunshot damage, most likely, a point-blank shot."

Upon learning that the shot was fired more than 60 years ago, Safronsky noted that such examinations were not carried out in the USSR then. An agreement was reached: the specialists of the Federal Center for Forensic Expertise, where the shirt was handed over, would not know about its belonging to the poet - for the purity of the experiment.

So, a beige-pink shirt made of cotton fabric is subject to research. There are 4 mother of pearl buttons on the front. The back of the shirt from the collar to the bottom is cut with scissors, as evidenced by the ledge-shaped edges of the cut and the even ends of the threads. But to claim that it was this shirt, bought by the poet in Paris, was on him at the time of the shot, not enough. The photographs of Mayakovsky’s body taken at the scene of the incident clearly distinguish the fabric pattern, texture, shape and localization of the blood stain, and gunshot damage. When the museum shirt was photographed from the same angle, magnification and photo-aligned, all the details coincided.

It was not an easy task for the experts from the Federal Center to find on the shirt the traces of a shot more than 60 years ago and establish its distance. And there are three of them in forensic medicine and forensics: a shot at point-blank range, from close and long distances. Linear cross-shaped injuries typical for a point-blank were detected (they arise from the action of gases reflected from the body at the moment of tissue destruction by the projectile), as well as traces of gunpowder, soot and scorching both in the damage itself and in adjacent areas of the tissue.

But it was necessary to identify a number of stable signs, for which the diffuse-contact method was used, which did not destroy the shirt. It is known: when fired, a red-hot cloud flies out with the bullet, then the bullet is ahead of it and flies further. If they fired from a long distance, the cloud did not reach the object, if close, the gas-powder suspension had to settle on the shirt. It was necessary to study the complex of metals that make up the shell of the bullet of the intended cartridge.

The resulting prints showed a small amount of lead in the area of \u200b\u200bdamage, and almost no copper was found. But thanks to the diffuse-contact method of determining antimony (one of the components of the capsule composition), it was possible to establish an extensive zone of this substance with a diameter of about 10 mm around the damage with the topography characteristic of a shot at the side support. Moreover, the sectoral deposition of antimony said that the muzzle was pressed at an angle to the shirt. And the intense metallization on the left side is a sign of firing from right to left, almost in the horizontal plane, with a slight downward slope.

From the "Conclusion" of experts:

"one. Damage to V.V. Mayakovsky’s shirt is a gunshot entrance, formed when firing from a distance of “lateral emphasis” in the direction from front to back and somewhat from right to left almost in a horizontal plane.

2. Judging by the characteristics of the damage, a short-barreled weapon (for example, a pistol) was used and a low-power cartridge was used.

3. The small size of the blood-soaked area located around the entrance of the gunshot damage indicates its formation as a result of simultaneous ejection of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood flow indicates that immediately after being injured V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying on the back.

4. The shape and small size of the blood blots located below the damage, and the peculiarity of their location along the arc indicate that they arose as a result of the dropping of small drops of blood from a small height onto the shirt during the movement of the right hand down, splattered with blood, or weapons in the same hand. "

Is suicide so thoroughly imitated? Yes, in expert practice there are cases of dramatization of one, two, less often five signs. But the whole complex of signs is impossible to falsify. It was established that drops of blood are not traces of bleeding from a wound: they fell from a small height from a hand or weapon. Even if we assume that the security officer Agranov (and he really knew his job) was a murderer and inflicted a drop of blood after a shot, say, from a pipette, although he simply did not have time for the restored timing of events, it was necessary to achieve a complete coincidence of the localization of the drops blood and traces of antimony. But the reaction to antimony was discovered only in 1987. It was a comparison of the location of antimony and drops of blood that became the pinnacle of this study.

Autograph of death

The specialists of the laboratory of forensic handwriting examinations had to work as well, because many, even very sensitive people, doubted the authenticity of the poet's death letter, made in pencil with almost no punctuation marks:

“To everyone. Do not blame anyone for dying and please do not gossip. The dead man did not like this terribly. Mom, sisters and comrades, I'm sorry this is not a way (I do not advise others), but I have no way out. Lily - love me. My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya ...
  Love boat \\ crashed about life. \\ I am counting on life \\ And there’s nothing to list \\ Mutual \\ troubles \\ And insults. Happy to stay. \\ Vladimir \\ Mayakovsky. 12.IV.30 g. "

From the "Conclusion" of experts:

“The presented letter on behalf of Mayakovsky was executed by Mayakovsky himself under unusual conditions, the most likely cause of which is the psychophysiological state caused by the excitement.”
  The dating was not in doubt either - namely on April 12, two days before his death - “immediately before suicide, the signs of unusualness would have been more pronounced”. So the secret of the decision to die is not in the 14th day of April, but in the 12th.

“Your word, comrade Mauser”

More recently, the case “On the Suicide of V.V. Mayakovsky” was transferred from the Presidential Archive to the Poet Museum along with a fatal browning, a bullet and a cartridge case. But the protocol of the inspection of the scene of the incident, signed by the investigator and an expert doctor, states that he shot himself from a "Mauser revolver, caliber 7.65, No. 312045". According to the certificate, the poet had two pistols - Browning and Bayard. And although Krasnaya Gazeta wrote about a shot from a gun, an eyewitness V.A.Katanyan mentions a Mauser, and N. Denisovsky, after years of browning, is still hard to imagine so that a professional investigator could confuse Browning with a Mauser.

Employees of the V.V. Mayakovsky Museum turned to the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise with a request to conduct a study of the Browning No. 268979 pistol, bullets and cartridges handed to them from the Presidential Archive and establish whether the poet shot himself with this weapon?

A chemical analysis of the plaque in the channel of the browning barrel made it possible to conclude that “no shot was fired from the weapon after the last cleaning. But the bullet once removed from Mayakovsky’s body really "is part of the 7.65 mm Browning cartridge of the 1900 model." So what's the deal? The examination showed: “The caliber of the bullet, the number of tracks, the width, the angle of inclination and the right-hand orientation of the tracks indicate that the bullet was fired from a Mauser model of 1914 from a pistol.”
  The results of the experimental shooting finally confirmed that "the 7.65 mm bullet of the Browning cartridge was fired not from the Browning pistol No. 268979, but from the 7.65 mm Mauser."

Still - a Mauser. Who replaced the weapon? In 1944, an employee of the NKGB, “talking” with the disgraced writer M. M. Zoshchenko, asked if he considered the cause of Mayakovsky’s death to be clear, to which the writer answered with dignity: “She remains mysterious. It is curious that the revolver from which Mayakovsky shot himself was presented to him by the famous Chekist Agranov. ”
  Could it be that Agranov himself, to whom all the materials of the investigation had flocked, changed his weapon by attaching Mayakovsky’s browning to the case? What for? Many knew about the “gift”, besides, the Mauser was not registered for Mayakovsky, which could have come back to Agranov himself (by the way, he was later shot, but for what?). However, this is from the realm of speculation. Better to respect the last request of the poet: “... please do not gossip. The dead man didn’t like that terribly. ”

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930) is considered an outstanding Soviet poet. In addition to poetry, he was also involved in drama, writing film scripts, and tried himself as a film director and film actor. He took an active part in the work of the creative association "LEF". That is, we see a bright creative personality, incredibly popular in the 20s of the last century. The name of the poet knew the whole country. Someone liked his poems, but someone didn’t. Indeed, they were somewhat specific and found recognition among supporters of just such a peculiar expression of their inner world.

But we will not talk about the work of the poet. To this day raises many questions. mayakovsky’s unexpected death on April 14, 1930. Vladimir Vladimirovich died at the age of 36. This is the happiest life period when you look at those who are older and those younger than you with the same irony. There are still many, many years of life ahead, but the fateful path of the creator for some reason ended, leaving in the souls of people a sense of bewilderment mixed with bewilderment.

Naturally, there was a consequence. The organs of the OGPU conducted it. The official conclusion was suicide. One can agree with this, since creative nature is inherently very unpredictable. They see the world around them somewhat differently than other people. Forever some kind of throwing, doubts, disappointments and the constant search for something slipping away all the time. In a word, it is very difficult to understand what they want from this life. And at the peak of disappointment, a cold gun barrel is brought to the temple or heart. A shot, and all problems are solved by themselves in the most simple and proven way.

However, the suicide of Vladimir Vladimirovich left a lot of questions and ambiguities. They clearly indicate that there was no suicide, but there was a murder. Moreover, it was carried out by official state bodies, which were originally supposed to protect citizens from rash and dangerous acts. So where is the truth? In this case, she is not guilty, but in facts that clearly indicate not just a criminal, but a political crime. But to understand the essence of the issue, you need to know the particulars. Therefore, at first we will get to know in more detail the Brik family, with whom our hero has long long close relationships.

Breeches

Lilya Brik (1891-1978) - the famous Soviet writer and her husband Osip Maksimovich Brik (1888-1945) - a literary critic and literary critic. This couple met a talented young poet in July 1915. After that, a new stage began in Mayakovsky’s life, which lasted 15 years until his death.

Vladimir and Lily fell in love with each other. But Osip Maksimovich did not become an obstacle to this feeling. The Trinity began to live together, which caused a lot of gossip in literary circles. What is there and how it was, is irrelevant for this story. It is much more important to know that Brikov and Mayakovsky were connected not only spiritual, but also material relations. Under Soviet rule, the poet was not at all a poor man. It is only natural that he shared part of his income with Briks.

Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik

We can assume that this is why Lily tried by all means to tie Vladimir to herself. Since 1926, the trio lived in a Moscow apartment, which the poet received. This is Gendrikov Lane (now Mayakovsky Lane). It is located in the very center of Moscow near Taganskaya Square. The Briks did not have the opportunity to get a separate apartment at that time. The huge city lived in communal apartments, and only outstanding personalities had their own living space, bringing significant benefits to the existing regime.

Since 1922, Mayakovsky’s works began to be published in major publications. The fees were so large that the trio began to spend a lot of time abroad, staying in expensive hotels. Therefore, it was not in the Briks' interests to break off relations with the gifted and naive poet, who was a good cash cow.

Heart affairs of Vladimir Mayakovsky

Being completely dependent on Lily Brick, our hero from time to time entered into intimate relationships with other women. In 1925, he traveled to America and started a love affair with Ally Jones. She was an emigrant from Russia, so the language barrier did not bother them. From this connection, on June 15, 1926, a girl was born, who received the name Helen (Elena). She lives to this day. He is a philosopher and writer, maintains a close relationship with Russia.

In 1928, Mayakovsky met in Paris with Tatyana Yakovleva. Along the way, Vladimir bought Lily Brick a French car. He chose it along with Yakovleva. For Moscow at that time it was an unthinkable luxury. The poet wanted to create a family with his new Parisian passion, but she did not express a desire to go to Bolshevik Russia.

However, Vladimir did not lose hope of connecting himself with the bonds of Hymen with Tatyana and finally saying goodbye to the Briks. This, of course, was not part of Lily's plans. In April 1929, she introduced the poet to the young and beautiful actress Veronika Polonskaya, who had been married to actor Mikhail Yanshin for 4 years.

Our hero was seriously carried away by a girl who was 15 years younger than him. By the way, news came from Paris that allegedly Yakovleva was getting married to a noble Frenchman. Therefore, Vladimir quickly forgot his foreign passion and concentrated all his attention on Veronica. It was this girl who became the main witness to the tragedy, because the death of Mayakovsky happened practically before her eyes.

Chronology of the tragic events

Possible cause of death

If we assume that Vladimir Vladimirovich was killed, then why was this done, to whom did he interfere? In 1918, the poet inextricably linked his fate with the Bolshevik party. He was a tribune preaching the ideas of world revolution. Therefore, he enjoyed such great success with various publishers. He was paid enormous fees, provided with separate housing, but in return demanded devotion and loyalty.

However, by the end of the 1920s, notes of disappointment with the existing regime began to slip in the poet’s works. There were still years of collectivization, terrible famine, repression, and Vladimir Vladimirovich already felt with his soul the mortal danger hanging over the country. It became increasingly difficult for him to praise the existing reality. I had to step over my understanding of the world and moral principles more and more often.

A wave of glee was gaining momentum in the country. Everyone admired or pretended to admire the achievements of the socialist system, and Mayakovsky began to satirically denounce all "rubbish." This sounded a discord with respect to the enthusiastic choir of toadies and opportunists. The authorities very quickly felt that the poet had become different. He has changed, and in a direction dangerous to the regime. The first sign was a criticism of his plays "Bedbug" and "Bath." Then the portrait from the literary magazine disappeared, and the persecution in the press unfolded.

Along with this, the Chekists began to patronize the poet. They began to regularly visit as good friends, because Lilya Brik loved to receive guests. But it is one thing when friends-writers come, and another when an employee of the OGPU comes in on a friendly visit. We must not forget that Osip Maksimovich Brik in 1919-1921 was an employee of the Cheka. But there are no former Chekists.

All this custody was carried out in order to check the trustworthiness of the poet. The results were deplorable for Vladimir Vladimirovich. It was decided to remove it. It could not be otherwise, because the forged stands could cause great ideological harm to the communist regime.

The last day of the poet's life

Mayakovsky’s death, as already mentioned, occurred on April 14, 1930. There were no breezes in Moscow: they went abroad in February. The poet decided to take advantage of their absence in order to finally break off the protracted relationship leading nowhere. He wanted to create a normal family and for this he chose Veronica Polonskaya. In early April, he makes a monetary contribution to a housing cooperative in order to purchase an apartment, and leave the available living space for a voluptuous and selfish couple.

On Monday, April 14, the poet arrives at Polonskaya at 8 o’clock in the morning and takes her to his place. There is a conversation between them. Vladimir demands that Veronica leave her husband and leave right now to him. The woman says that she cannot leave Yanshin right away. She does not refuse Mayakovsky, assures that she loves him, but she needs time. After this, Polonskaya leaves the apartment, since at 10-30 she has a rehearsal in the theater. She goes into the front door and then hears the sound of a revolver shot. Veronica rushes back into the room just a moment after leaving and sees that Vladimir is lying on the floor with his arms outstretched.

Soon an investigation team arrived, but not from the police, but from counterintelligence. It was headed by the head of the secret department of the OGPU Yakov Saulovich Agranov (1893-1938). His appearance can be explained by the fact that he oversaw the creative intelligentsia. The scene was examined, the body of the poet was photographed. The death letter of Vladimir Vladimirovich was found, dated April 12. Agranov read it aloud and put it in his tunic’s pocket.

Toward evening, the sculptor Konstantin Lutsky appeared. He made a plaster mask from the face of the deceased. Initially, they did not want to do an autopsy, since it was already clear that the poet died from a shot in the heart. But rumors spread that Mayakovsky was sick with syphilis, which was the reason for the tragedy. Pathologists had to open the body, but no serious abnormalities were found in the organs. The newspapers wrote that the poet died of a transient disease. Friends subscribed to the obituary, and that was the end of the matter.

Murder or suicide?

So how can you still characterize the death of Mayakovsky? Was it a murder or a suicide? To shed light on this issue, we begin, as expected, with a suicide note. Here is her text:

"To everyone ... I don’t blame anyone and do not gossip that I am dead. The dead man didn’t like this terribly. Mom, sister, comrades, I'm sorry, but I have no other choice. Lily, love me.

Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sister and Veronika Polonskaya. I would be grateful if you give them a decent life. Pass on the started verses to Briks, they will understand. As they say - the incident is over, the love boat crashed into everyday life. I am counting my life, and there’s no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and insults. Happy to stay. "

Here is a will written according to the date of April 12th. And the fatal shot sounded on April 14th. At the same time, a love affair with Veronica took place, although the poet knew that he was about to die. But despite this, he insisted that the beloved immediately leave her husband. Is there any logic in this?

It is also interesting that the last letter Vladimir Vladimirovich wrote in pencil. He had money to buy a cooperative apartment, but he couldn’t even find the little things by the handle. However, the deceased had his own very good pen with a luxurious golden feather. He never gave it to anyone, but wrote only to her. But at the most crucial moment of his life he picked up a pencil. To them, by the way, and writing is much easier to fake than a pen.

At one time, Sergei Eisenstein said in a narrow circle of friends that if you carefully read the writing style, you can argue that it was not written by Mayakovsky. So who then gave birth to this creation. Maybe there was an employee in the apparatus of the OGPU who took on responsibilities so unusual for him?

A criminal case number 02-29 is stored in the archive. This is precisely the case of the suicide of V.V. Mayakovsky. It was led by an investigator I. Syrtsov. So, the death certificate is not mentioned in the inspection report, as if it did not exist. There is also no examination of the shirt that was on the poet at the time of death. But she could tell a lot to the investigation.

But most importantly, it is completely unclear from the case where Polonskaya was when the fatal shot was fired. Either she was standing near the poet, or she had already left the room. As Veronica herself later claimed, she went out to the front door and only there she heard the sound of a shot. However, judging by the papers, her behavior can be interpreted in different ways. A woman ran down the stairs, and a shot rang out, or ran out of the room screaming, and at that very moment the poet shot himself. So maybe she saw a gun in Vladimir’s hand, got scared and tried to hide? It seems that the investigator did not need a clear answer.

Closed the criminal case on April 19. At the same time, it remained a mystery whether a gun was found near the body or not. How was the body? Head to the door or head deep into the room. If someone outsider came into the room and shot, then Vladimir Vladimirovich had to fall back, that is, with his head deep into the room. But nothing definite can be said here. Thus, we can conclude that the investigative actions were carried out extremely carelessly. They represented a pure formality. All the work was done not for the sake of establishing the truth, but for the sake of a tick, that such work was done.

So the conclusion suggests itself. OGPU employees killed the poet, but presented the case as suicide. It was safely archived and dusted on shelves until the 90s of the XX century. And who will you ask after 60 years? Moreover, the people of Yagoda, including the Agranov, were shot in the years 37-38. So the retaliation in any case happened.

Who won after the death of Mayakovsky?

Mayakovsky’s death was in the hands of Lily Brik. There is no talk about Osip Maksimovich, since his family life with his loving wife ended in divorce. But the Soviet government recognized Lily as the legitimate heiress of the poet who passed away. She received his cooperative apartment and cash savings.

But the most important thing is the archives, which, in fact, were the public domain. However, this is not all. The so-called "widow" of Mayakovsky since 1935 began to receive interest from the sold works of the poet. And they were printed in millions of copies, since posthumously Vladimir Vladimirovich was recognized as the best and most talented poet of the Soviet era.

As for Polonskaya, then without two minutes the wife received nothing. However, no. She got gossip, talk behind her, malevolent smirks. The last point in this epic was a divorce from her husband. Well, what can you do. This is how the world works. Someone finds, and someone loses. But we will be optimistic. Popular wisdom says: "What does not happen is always for the better."

"Miracles and Adventures" 2/95

MAYAKOVSKY: “Who, I shot myself. This is bent!

Valentin Skoryatin

There is hardly a man in Russia who has not read or heard of the tragic end of Mayakovsky. Since school years, we have been inspired and still inspire our children with only one thought about the naturalness of the poet's suicide on the basis of his tangled love relationships, complicated by creative failures, nervousness, and also a long illness. Many of the poet’s friends supported the mean official version, which considered “personal reasons” to be the motive for suicide.

Declared on the day of the poet’s death, she actually turned the investigation into a formal way of stating this conclusion, leading him away from the answer: “but numerous questions. The literary historians, who were under the vigilant supervision of censorship imposed by the authorities a few hours after the shot and acting - behind the scenes - to this day, have practically engaged in the detailed development and "maintenance" of this version.

The writers' arguments came down to a list of facts, the totality of which supposedly led Mayakovsky to suicide: in the fall of 1929, the poet was denied a visa to France, where he was going to marry T. Yakovleva; then he received news of the marriage of T. Yakovleva herself; the painful condition was aggravated by the rejection of criticism of his "Bath"; in April 1930, the poet’s personal relations with V. Polonskaya, which the poet loved and with whom he wanted to start a family, were upset; and most importantly, Mayakovsky left a dying letter explaining the reasons for his voluntary departure from life.

About 25 years ago, journalist Valentin Skoryatin began collecting facts about Mayakovsky’s biography related to his death. When the materials accumulated, he suddenly saw that in the poet's dying chronicle there are many gaping voids that require at least some explanation. Here he is, following the logic of having already reliably established facts, to fill in the missing ... From that moment, searches of Valentin Ivanovich took the character of a true independent investigation - independent of any department and focused on the only goal — to reach the truth.

Unable to order Valentin Ivanovich a summary article based on the results of his investigation (he died in May 1994), we publish this material based on his book, which has not yet been published. V. Skoryatin conducted colossal journalistic work, for which he received in 1991 the prize of the Union of Journalists of the USSR. The importance of his research is evident from the words of the American professor Albert Todd, expressed by him at the Russian-American symposium on Mayakovsky: “Both in Russia and in America, many classified documents and annoying unanswered questions suggest: the true truth was distorted and hidden. The outstanding work recently done by Russian researcher Valentin Skoryatin ... makes us take a fresh look at the version of Mayakovsky’s suicide. ”

DOES MAYAKOVSKY REALLY WANT TO PARIS?

The beginning of Skoryatin’s doubts about the poet’s voluntary departure from life was laid by the absence of any serious evidence of his refusal to obtain a visa for a trip to Paris, which was supposed to end in a marriage with T. Yakovleva.

Here it should be noted not only the special role of Lily Brick in the dissemination of this version, but also the special purpose that she pursued. The fact is that living together with the poet completely satisfied Brikov, since it provided many noticeable material advantages. Therefore, Brik did not want to let Mayakovsky away from him - because his intention to create his own family would lead to a mandatory departure. Therefore, when Mayakovsky in October 1928 goes to Nice on a date with his two-year-old daughter Ally and her mother, American Elizabeth Siebert (Ally Jones), L. Brik (Elsa), alarmed by this circumstance, introduces Mayakovsky to the beautiful emigrant from Russia Tatyana Yakovleva. She is not going to return to her homeland, and Mayakovsky, too, will never stay abroad. And flirting with T. Yakovleva, according to L. Brik, will distract the poet from his father's worries.

But as soon as the poet falls in love seriously and has a firm intention to connect his life with T. Yakovleva, Brika, after Mayakovsky’s arrival in April 1929. from Paris to Moscow, they introduce him to the “22-year-old spectacular V. Yablonskaya, actress of the Moscow Art Theater.

“Mayakovsky’s sudden flare up, - pshivt Skoryatin, - as if pushed T. Yakovlev to the background and excluded marrying her. This turn was quite satisfied with Brikov. Polonskaya in Moscow. If something happens, there is an opportunity to hint at a possible publicity of her relationship with the poet. ” After all, V. Polonskaya was married to actor Yanshin.

Mayakovsky begins to realize that his love for T. Yakovleva is without a future, and on October 5, 1929 he sends the last letter to Paris.

A trip to Paris lost sense to Mayakovsky for another reason. On October 11, 1929, L. Brik receives a letter from Elsa's sister, which stated that "Yakovleva ... is getting married to the Viscount." We note two details: Lily Brik’s intention to bring this information to the poet, which was unpleasant for him because V. Paul was in the room with her husband, and that Elsa was significantly ahead of the events in the letter.

Therefore, when Skoryatin checked the archival documents, he was not surprised at what he discovered: Mayakovsky did not write an application for a visa and did not receive any refusal. So, this situation in no way could influence the poet’s mood in the spring of 1930 and did not give him cause for serious feelings, which, as was believed, led him to the tragedy of April 14th.

In the spring of the 30th year, Mayakovsky was saddened by an ideological quarrel with the REF, a boycott of his former associates of his exhibition, and he was unsuccessful with Banya. And then there's a severe throat disease, possibly the flu. He does not hide his malaise, trying to visit people more often in order to overcome a melancholy mood. At one time, he seemed gloomy, the other - bruised, the third - having lost faith in their strength. Skoryatin notes that "these fleeting observations, having subsequently become rounded up with speculation and rumors, turned into a solid backup for the official report of suicide."

At this time, Mayakovsky became more and more attached to Veronika Polonskaya and connected her whole future with her. This was not the first time he decided to “build a family,” but he always ran into stubborn resistance from Lily Brik, launching female tricks, tricks, and hysteria, and Mayakovsky retreated. It was a strange life for the three of us ... In the spring of 1930, he decided to separate from the Briks at all costs, feeling a huge craving for a normal family of his own. After all, by Brik he was, in essence, lonely and homeless. Relations with V. Polonskaya make him act. April 4, he contributes to the housing cooperative RZHSKT them. Krasina (after the poet’s death, Briks will move there), asks V. Sutyrina (from FOSP) to help with an apartment in order to leave Briks before they return from abroad. But did not have time ...

On the evening of April 13, Mayakovsky went to visit V. Kataev. There were Polonskaya and Yanshin. We parted late at three o’clock. It was Monday, April 14th.

Mayakovsky appeared at V. Polonskaya at 8.30. They took a taxi to the fateful apartment in Lubyansky. There Polonskaya warned that at 10.30 she had an important rehearsal and she could not be late. When she reassured Mayakovsky, demanding, according to her, that she should stay with him now, she said that she loved him, would be with him, but could not stay. Yanshin will not tolerate her departure in this form. "I left. She walked a few steps to the front door. A shot rang out ... I screamed. Noticed along the corridor ... I probably entered in a moment. There was still a cloud of smoke from the shot in the room. Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on the floor, arms outstretched ... "

Skoryatin notes that “then none of those present heard Polonskaya talking about the revolver in the poet’s hands when she ran out of the room.” This important detail would immediately explain everything: Polonskaya runs out - Mayakovsky immediately shoots at the heart. And no doubt about suicide. Maybe, by that time, the investigators had not yet managed to force Polonskaya to agree with the “all explaining” version?

Skoryatin drew attention to the fact that everyone who came running right after the shot caught the poet’s body lying in one position (“legs to the door”), and those who later appeared in another (“head to door”). Why did they move the body? Maybe in that turmoil someone needed to imagine such a picture - at the time of the shot the poet stood with his back to the door, here is a bullet in the chest (from the inside of the room) and knocked him backward, head to the threshold. Undoubted suicide! And if he stood facing the door? The same blow would again overturn him, but with his feet to the door. True, in this case, the shot could be fired not only by the poet himself, but also by someone who suddenly appeared at the door ... The first to arrive, the head of the secret department of the GPU, Y. Agranov, immediately took matters into his own hands. L. Krasnoshchekova recalled that she had persuaded Agranov to wait for Lily, but he said that the funeral would be “tomorrow or the day after tomorrow” and they would not wait for Brikov. Then, apparently, Agranov realized (or someone told him) that such a hasty funeral would undoubtedly raise unnecessary suspicions.

In the evening, the sculptor K. Lutsky arrived, who removed the mask from the face of Mayakovsky. On June 22, 1989, in the Leningrad television program "The Fifth Wheel", the artist A. Davydov, showing this mask, drew the attention of viewers that his nose was broken. So Mayakovsky fell face down, he suggested, and not on his back, as happens when shooting at himself.

Then the prosectors arrived to seize the poet’s brain for research at the Brain Institute. The fact that Mayakovsky’s surname turned out to be "among the elect" seemed to Skoryatin "a sure sign that the course of tragic events is controlled by omnipotent forces."

“About midnight,” recalls E. Lavinskaya, “Agranov's voice came from the dining room. "He stood with papers in his hands and read aloud the last letter of Vladimir Vladimirovich Agranov read and left the letter with him."

A body autopsy, as it should be according to investigative laws, was never carried out if it were not for V. Sutyrin, who demanded an autopsy on April 16, when he heard rumors of Mayakovsky’s 6 incurable venereal disease, which allegedly led him to suicide ("Swift disease" - this was said even in the official obituary “In Memory of a Friend” in Pravda, signed by Y. Agranov, M. Gorb, V. Katanyan, M. Koltsov, S. Tretyakov, L. Elbert and others). The autopsy results showed that malicious gossip had no basis. But this conclusion has not been published.

Agranov also took the photograph that E. Lavinskaya saw in his hands when he showed it to the FOSP club with a bunch of Lefovites: “This was a photograph of Mayakovsky, spread out, as if crucified on the floor, with arms and legs spread wide and open wide in a desperate scream mouth ... Having explained: “They immediately shot it when they entered the room of Agranov, Tretyakov and Koltsov. I have never seen this photograph again. ” (Skoryatin thinks the picture was taken before the arrival of the investigation team.)

The Briks arrived, who, as many knew, were staying with Lily Yuryevna's mother, E. Kagan, who worked at the Soviet trade mission in London. Brik never talked about who and how she found her abroad with her husband.

Some Briks, perhaps, were not surprised at anything. For them, the death of the poet has never been a secret K. Zelensky recalls how Osip Brik convinced him: “Re-read his poems and you will see how often he talks ... about his inevitable suicide.” Lilya Brik cited other motives for the poet’s supposedly inevitable suicide: “Volodya was a neurasthenic. With a 37-degree temperature, he felt seriously ill. As soon as I recognized him, he was already thinking about suicide. He wrote his dying farewell letters more than once. ” L. Brick, everything was clear.

Let us follow the thought of Valentin Ivanovich Skoryatin, the only person who seriously thought about the so-called “death letter” of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Maybe something will become clear to us too - and not only about the poet, but even about Lily Brik herself.

SUGGESTED LETTER: DOCUMENT OR FALSE?

Here is his text, always quoted to prove the poet’s intention to commit suicide (and Skoryatin’s comment):

“To everyone

Do not blame anyone for dying and please do not gossip. The dead man did not like this terribly.

Mom, sisters and comrades, I'm sorry - this is not a way (I do not advise others) - but I have no way out. Lily - love me.

Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya. If you give them a decent life, thank you. Give the started poems to Briks, they will figure it out. As they say -

“The incident is broken”, the love boat crashed into everyday life. I am with life in the calculation, and there is nothing to the list of mutual pains, Trouble and resentment, It’s happy to stay.

Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Comrades Vappovtsy, do not consider me cowardly. Seriously - there's nothing to be done. Hey.

Ermilov say that it is a pity - he removed the slogan, it would be necessary to curse.

V.M.

I have 2000 rubles in the table. pay in tax.

Get the rest from Giza.

“Responding to the death of Mayakovsky, his foe V. Khodasevich called this document“ petty and insignificant ”and snapped: they say, the poet carried a“ letter ”in his pocket for two days. It is written poisonously, but honestly, this letter does not paint Mayakovsky in the best light ...

First of all, we turn to the line where the poet lists the composition of the “family”. He mentions relatives twice. But where the appeal is purely emotional, they are called the first, and in the place where, in fact, the heirs are listed, the relatives somehow appear after L. Brick. (Later, the right to inheritance will be secured by the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR: 1/2 is assigned to L. Brik, 1/6 to mothers and sisters, V. Polonskaya, in violation of the will of the poet, nothing will be gained). But, in fact, it is not this truly unjust decision that causes bewilderment, but the moral meaning of such a “list” itself. It is well known that Mayakovsky, who allowed harshness in public debate, was extremely noble with people close to him. Why, turning to the “comrade of government”, he casts such a shadow inadvertently ... no, not to L. Brik (she had long been known in the official opinion as the poet’s unofficial wife with an official husband), but primarily to a married young woman? Moreover, having unveiled the connection with her, he immediately again humiliates her with an exclamation: "Lily - love me."

And okay, the letter would be drawn up hastily, in the death languor of the last minutes, but on a double sheet of ledger is the date - April 12th. Another thing is striking: why, preparing for a decisive conversation with his lover, Mayakovsky in advance, already on April 12, predetermines the outcome of the conversation that had not yet taken place with her - "the love boat crashed ..."? But in fact it didn’t crash in general: as we know, the poet’s proposal was accepted by Veronika Vitoldovna ...

However, the poems did not apply to Polonskaya. They were written by a poet ... back in 1928. The sketch was transferred by the poet from one notebook to another. And it came in handy for appeal ... to the government. It turns out that Mayakovsky, without straining his mind or heart, took his old blanks and mounted them in his dying letter, disorienting everyone about the addressee?

Not to mention the financial calculations at the end of the letter. What is a person thinking in the face of eternity? What taxes, what GIZ! If you want it or not, you have to agree with V. Khodasevich in something.

It’s necessary, but something is interfering. It does not fit in my head what it is, frankly, a vain letter came out from under the poet's pen. However, just ... not from the pen. According to the newspapers that reprinted the letter, readers did not understand that the original was written ... in pencil.

It is known that it was very difficult to get the poet’s pen even for a short time. Yes, and it’s almost impossible to fake the handwriting of a “foreign” fountain pen, But all these difficulties are eliminated if you use ... a pencil. And the handwriting itself is a mere trifle for professionals from Agranov’s department. And assuming this assumption, ace fluttering perplexing perplexities about the pencil text.

The letter, like many other material evidence, was taken by Agranov. It is known that even members of the government when sharing Mayakovsky’s inheritance were guided not by the original, but ... by his newspaper reprint (an unprecedented fact!). ”

The notes by filmmaker S. Eisenstein found by Skoryatin say that he, noting in his dying letter “the proximity of the rhythmic system” to “thieves Odessa poetry”, as well as “foolish folklore” of the times of the Civil War (thus hinting at Mayakovsky’s inability to be the author of the letter), makes an unambiguous conclusion: “Mayakovsky never wrote anything like this!” And again: “He had to be removed. And they removed him ... "

The insulting tone of the letter to the mother and sister, as well as the unprecedented violation of their inheritance rights, prove that the poet wrote nothing like this.

Mayakovsky spent the most tragic year with Polonskaya and wanted to introduce her to his new home as a wife. Mentioned in Mayakovsky’s death letter as a member of his family, she was deftly removed from any of the poet’s inheritance rights. . She got only painful conversations with Syrtsov and Agranov, gossip, an early divorce from her husband and an ambiguous position in society, when L. Brik was for some reason considered Mayakovsky’s widow, not divorced from O. Brik, but she; Polonskaya, in fact - the "illegal" beloved of the poet. And in a terrible dream, the young actress could not dream of what an ungrateful role she was destined for in this theater of the absurd Brik.

Considering that from 1930 to 1958 the letter lay in the top secret archives of the OGPU, and then in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, it can be argued that it was a fake drawn up by the organs of the OGPU and designed to convince everyone as the main evidence of Mayakovsky's suicide.

“CRIMINAL CASE No. 02-29”

Several years ago, after numerous searches, Skoryatin managed to get in the secret archive “Criminal Case No. 02-29, 1930, of a people's investigator 2 uc. Baum. district of Moscow, I. Syrtsov on the suicide of V.V. Mayakovsky. "

Here are just a few facts from the police report that caused serious bewilderment:

The report does not mention the death letter;

The calendar reported by V. Polonskaya is not mentioned. Now there is a calendar in the Mayakovsky Museum;

The “book-killer” was not found and questioned (didn’t the person participating in the preparation of the murder come under the guise of him?);

An examination of Mayakovsky’s shirt was not carried out. L. Brik took the shirt for herself and handed it over to the museum only 24 years later. You cannot vouch for the fact that they did not "work" with her in such a way that she corresponded to the version of suicide.

This protocol, transmitting a strange and indisputable interference in the case of Agranov and his "colleagues", was then transferred along with the case for some reason to investigator I. Syrtsov, who was in charge of another member of the district. Syrtsov turned out to be more accommodating for Agranov.

The contradictions between the memoirs of V. Polonskaya and her testimony to the investigator, in Skoryatin’s opinion, are explained by the fact that she wrote them eight years later and not for the general public, and it seemed to her that the damned interrogation pages had sunk forever into obscurity.

As for the tsetse of protocol testimony (“I was annoying,” “I was not going to leave my husband”), it was precisely this version that the investigator I. Syrtsov wanted from her.

On April 14, I. Syrtsov, after questioning V. Polonskaya on Lubyansky, states: “Suicide is caused by personal reasons,” which will be published in the press the next day.

On April 15, Syrtsov takes a sudden “causeless” break in the investigation, which Skoryatin explains by the fact that on that day Syrtsov received the necessary instructions for further actions at Lubyanka. There is a document in the case that speaks of the keen interest in the death of the poet on the part of two OGPU divisions at once: the counterintelligence (Gendin) and the secret, which was led by Agranov, in whose hands later all the threads of the case were found. The GPU probably confused the phrase in the interrogation record: “I went out the door of his room ...” It turns out that the poet was left alone for some time, and this could give rise to all kinds of rumors.

“The fears of the Gapaushniks were not in vain,” V. Skoryatin develops the conjecture, “for the question of where Polonskaya was at the time of the shot caused a lot of misunderstanding. Y. Olesha wrote to Berlin to V. Meyerhold on April 30, 1930: “... She ran out with a cry“ Save ”, and a shot rang out ...” And the poet’s sister Lyudmila Vladimirovna believed that Polonskaya not only “went out his door rooms ", but already" ran down the stairs. " In her notebook, she wrote: “When P. (Polonskaya) ran away from the stairs and a shot rang out, Agran immediately appeared. (Agranov), Tretiak. (Tretyakov), Rings. They entered and did not let anyone into the room. ”

The case materials did not give an answer to the question: did Polonskaya manage to run out of Mayakovsky’s room or out of the apartment, or did the shot happen with her? They didn’t give it, because, apparently, such an answer was simply not needed.

All the haste and incompleteness, Skoryatin believes, is explained by the fact that Syrtsov clearly “drove” the case, and already on April 19 he closed it, making a decision, where the death letter “note” was mentioned only once.

At the prosecutor’s office, another document is added to the case: “A receipt. I received money from P.M.O., ave. Comrade Gerchikova in the room of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, in the amount of 2113 rubles. 82 kopecks and 2 gold rings. Two thousand one hundred and thirteen rubles 82 k. And 2 evils. rings received. L. Brick. 21.4.30 ".

“Lilya Yuryevna,” comments V. Skoryatin, “who was not (with a living husband!) In any official family relationship with Mayakovsky, for no reason receives money and things found in his room, and then everything his inheritance, both in material values \u200b\u200band in priceless archives, which are, in essence, a public treasure. This is the particular cynicism of this situation. The letter of the poet’s sister Olga Vladimirovna sent to relatives a few days later after the tragedy said: “On the 12th I spoke with him on the phone ... Volodya ordered me to come to him on Monday the 14th, and, leaving home in the morning, I she said that from the service I’ll go to Volodya. This talk was the last of the 12th. ” Clear; the same, that Volodya prepared an envelope for his sister with fifty rubles as usual, ordinary help to the family. And this benefit is given in the case materials almost for the final, dying, as if calculation of the poet with his loved ones! I’m not saying that this fact testifies best of all: the poet and thought didn’t leave life of their own free will. ”

We add to the words of V. Skoryatin that all the behavior of J. Brik is the best possible evidence of the many areas of personal interest of L. Brik and her husband in this matter, of her extensive ties with the KGB circles that had developed thanks to her husband’s work in the Cheka since 1920 (first in the speculative department, and then “authorized by the 7th branch of the secret department”). As Skoryatin discovered, Lily herself was an agent of this terrible department. The number of her KGB certificate is 15073, and Osipa Brik is 25541. It is clear what organization helped Briks to urgently leave Moscow in February 1930 to leave the poet alone. In connection with this argument, Skoryatin becomes clear why Lily Brik organized in 1935 the transfer of his letter through Agranov to Stalin. The Stalin resolution (“Mayakovsky was and remains the best, most talented poet of our Soviet era”) was to force Soviet publishers to publish Mayakovsky’s works in huge print runs, which Lily Brik was directly interested in as heiress.

After what Skoryatin said, a natural conclusion suggests itself: L. and O. Brika could not but know that Mayakovsky would soon be killed. All their behavior proves this.

And the last one. In the folder of the criminal case, instead of “Mauser No. 312045”, mentioned in the police report, Skoryatin

The reader, of course, drew attention to how many perplexities, violations, questions this case about such a simple and ordinary suicide “for personal reasons” caused, nevertheless surrounded by the strictest secrecy. But all questions and problems disappear or are explained, if we assume that the poet was killed. This conclusion is made by Skoryatin. And then the really last question remains: why was this done and by whom? Skoryatin admits that until the end of his life “the poet was faithful to the romantic ideals of the revolution. But more and more often notes of tragic disappointment burst into his "party books", and with all the tension he sang about reality. But the satirical denunciation of "rubbish" grew stronger. In the course of gaining glee about success, the poet's voice began to sound a dangerous dissonance. Terrible warning signals appeared: the performances based on the plays “Bedbug” and “Bathhouse” were stunned, a portrait was taken from the magazine, more and more embittered baiting in print. ”

Reflecting on how quickly the circle of Chekists narrowed around the poets in the last month, Skoryatin believes this is not accidental. (L. Elbert moved to his apartment immediately after Brik’s departure, who had worked in the Cheka in 1921 as deputy head of the inf. Department and as a special representative of the foreign department engaged in espionage and international terrorism, and the Volovich family of Chekists often visited him and, finally, Y. Agranov, about whom Roman Gul writes: “He was under Dzerzhinsky, and Stalin reached the highest Chekist posts, the bloody Cheka investigator Yakov (Yankel) Agranov ... who became the executioner of the Russian intelligentsia. He ... destroyed the color of Russian science and the public. .. It's bloody This insignificance is the actual killer of the remarkable Russian poet N. S. Gumilyov ... ") Mayakovsky, apparently, did not understand," with what all-devouring fire he plays, "in contact with some secrets of the GPU. And therefore, there are the most serious grounds for conclusions about the murder of the poet. An analysis of the poet’s last days suggests that the murder was being prepared under the leadership of the GPU on April 12, but for some reason failed. (A brilliant hunch by Skoryatin explaining why this date is supposedly written on the poet’s death letter.) The influx of GPU employees on April 14 (from the secret department, counterintelligence and opera who was involved in the arrests, searches, provocations, terrorist attacks), Skoryatin believes, on the one hand, throws a shadow on the reputation of the proletarian poet, forcing us to suspect him today not only of creative cooperation with the regime, but on the other - may become a testament of the authorities' mistrust of the poet.

Skoryatin established that on the day of Mayakovsky’s death, the activity of the employees of the GPU was clearly higher than on other days. Apparently, having long discovered the surveillance, the poet was constantly upset by this. It follows from the testimony of V. Polonskaya that when she ran out into the street after the shot, “a man,

asked my address. " The same thing happened with the book-killer, whose interrogation protocol was kept in secret for decades. And the book-maker Loktev: he ended up in the apartment, probably just a few minutes before the shot, because he accidentally saw “Mayakovsky kneeling before her (Polonskaya) ...”. From the protocol of inspection of the poet’s body, it is clear that the shot was fired from top to bottom (as the bullet entered near the heart and was felt near the last ribs below the back) “and it seems,” Skoryatin concludes, “at the moment that Mayakovsky was on his knees ". This is the last thing he came to in the investigation.

Skoryatin did not find who the killer is. But with his research, he proved that the Soviet official myth of the suicide of the poet Mayakovsky no longer exists, that the secret of this tragic event was revealed to him - the poet Mayakovsky was killed.

The name of the killer is unknown. But we know who was interested in it, who was interested in it, who did not like his plays, the desire to write the poem “Bad” and much of what was already born inside of it and was only looking for a way out. Hence his desire to free himself from the yoke of the Briks, who had become spiritually alien to him for a long time, to break with the Chekist encirclement, the desire to say “with all his voice” what was born in his heart. It is no coincidence that on one of his visits to Paris, he tells Yu.Annenkov with startling frankness, “that communism, the ideas of communism, its ideal, are one thing, while the“ communist party ”is very powerfully organized ... and led by people who enjoy all the benefits of "full power" and "freedom of action", this is a completely different thing. "

It is no accident that his faith fluctuates. Late in the evening of April 13, 1930, "... he exclaimed:" Oh Lord! " Polonskaya said: “Incredible! World turned upside down. Mayakovsky calls on the Lord. You really. a believer? ”And he replied:“ Ah, I myself do not understand anything now ... what I believe! ”

If Mayakovsky wanted to adapt, he would have written the poem Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. The poet did not go for it, although he was probably persistently prompted. But the main mistakes he made in life and in poetry (standing up on the side of those who needed to be deprived of this word), they were sincere. And like any person who is sincerely mistaken, that person also very slowly sees. But when he sees clearly, such a steel will will be born in him, such a colossal power, given to him by the very truth of his life, then this person can no longer be controlled. He will do anything and do what needs to be done. And such Mayakovsky was born.

I know the power of words

i know the words are alarmed.

They are not the ones

which applaud the lodges ...

Isn’t you heard this colossal spiritual power, which had just fallen into obscure lines, had just left the soul of his heart, but had already announced that there would never be old Mayakovsky with his countless volumes of his “party books”, even if for this it will be required that he not be. Mayakovsky, who is born again, does not want to put up with what he put up with before, does not want to listen to those whom he listened to anymore, does not want to bow to anyone else, but wants to BE, no matter what it costs him. He challenges Death itself - ... and that accepts it.

In one, perhaps, one can agree with Lily Yuryevna and Osip Maksimovich - yes, Mayakovsky did predict his death, but death - violent! And not only predicted, but also wanted, but also called, but also longed with all my heart. And the closer to the 30th year, the stronger this unknown impulse of the soul, breaking through only in verse.

MAYAKOVSKY. SECRET OF DEATH: POINT OVER i DELIVERED
For the first time, a professional examination of a shirt was carried out, in which the poet was found in his office on Lubyanka, his pistol and the fatal bulletAT    At eleven o'clock in the morning on April 14, 1930, in Moscow in Lubyansky passage a shot rang out in Vladimir Mayakovsky’s room ... The Leningrad Krasnaya Gazeta reported: “Mayakovsky’s suicide. Today at 10.17 a.m. Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide in his working room with a shot from a gun in the heart region. The ambulance arrived and found him already dead. Last few days
V.V. Mayakovsky showed no spiritual discord, and nothing portended a catastrophe. On the night of yesterday, contrary to custom, he did not sleep at home. He returned home at 7 o’clock. in the morning. During the day he did not leave the room. He spent the night at home. This morning he went out somewhere and after a short time returned in a taxi accompanied by the artist of the Moscow Art Theater X. Soon a shot rang out from Mayakovsky’s room, followed by the artist X. The ambulance was immediately called, but Mayakovsky died before she arrived . Ran into the room found Mayakovsky lying on the floor with a shot through his chest. The deceased left two notes: one to his sister, in whom he transfers money to her, and the other to friends, where he writes that “he knows very well that suicide is not an option, but he has no other way ...”.
   Upon the death of V. Mayakovsky, a criminal case was opened, which was conducted by investigator Syrtsov.
   On the afternoon of April 14, Mayakovsky’s body was transported to an apartment in Gendrikovsky Lane, where he constantly lived. In a small room of the apartment at 20 o’clock, scientists at the Institute of the Brain removed the poet’s brain.
   It is known that the last person who saw the poet alive was the 22-year-old actress of the Moscow Art Theater Veronika Polonskaya, who was in a hurry to rehearse that morning. V. Polonskaya recalled: “I left. She walked a few steps to the front door. A shot rang out. My legs gave way, I screamed and rushed along the corridor, I could not force myself to enter.

  Nameless killer?
   Journalist-researcher V.I. Skoryatin managed to collect and analyze rich factual material. Many facts from the life of the poet and people close to him before this study, published in the journal "Journalist" (1989-1994), and later in the book "The Secret of the Death of Vladimir Mayakovsky" (M., "Zvinnitsa-MG", 1998) remained unknown.
He managed to establish that in 1930 in the communal apartment in Lubyansky proezd, in which the poet’s office was located, there was another small room, which was subsequently laid by the wall. “Now imagine,” the journalist muses, “Polonskaya quickly descends the stairs. The door to the poet’s room opens. On the threshold - someone. Seeing a weapon in his hands, Mayakovsky screams indignantly ... A shot. The poet is falling. The killer comes to the table. Leaves a letter on it. Puts a weapon on the floor. And then hides in the bathroom or toilet. And after the neighbors came running to the noise, he enters the staircase by the back door. ” Well, a bold version, which, of course, requires strong evidence.
   In support of the version of the poet’s murder, the journalist cites a photograph on which Mayakovsky’s body is lying on the floor, “his mouth is open in a scream.” V. Skoryatin asks: “A suicide screams before a shot ?!”
   By the way, and it can be. And you should also know that after death, the human body relaxes, the muscles become soft, and come to rest, as it were. The mouth of the deceased is opened, the lower jaw sags, which, in fact, is reflected in the photograph.
   Veronika Vitoldovna returned immediately after the shot. And when did “someone” manage to commit his atrocity and even hide in such a way that no one saw him?
   Three "young" neighbors of Mayakovsky, as V. Skoryatin writes, at that time were in a "small room in the kitchen." Naturally, when they heard a shot and jumped out into the corridor, they had to collide with the person leaving the poet’s room. However, neither the actress, nor the "young neighbors" saw anyone.
   Polonskaya claimed that Mayakovsky was lying on his back. But a number of researchers believe that the poet's body lay face down. However, in the photographs taken at the scene, the poet lies face up, on the shirt on the left - a dark spot. This is what blood usually looks like in black and white photographs.
   There were also sensational statements that they shot Mayakovsky twice ... In the program "Before and after midnight," the famous television journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested the traces of two shots in the photograph of the dead Mayakovsky shown to him.
And there was a lot of gossip about the forensic examination of the poet's body. On the very first day, the poet's autopsy was performed by the famous pathologist professor V. Talalaev in the morgue of the medical faculty of Moscow State University. According to the memoirs of V. Sutyrin, on the night of April 17, the body was opened in connection with the rumors spreading about the alleged venereal disease of Mayakovsky. An autopsy conducted by Professor Talalaev did not reveal any signs of sexually transmitted diseases.
   Rumors and speculation about the death of Mayakovsky fanned an unhealthy excitement, but at the same time pointed to the miscalculations of the investigators of the 30s.
   The journalist Skoryatin, obviously, did not even imagine what valuable service the specialists rendered, mentioning the shirt that was on Mayakovsky at the time of the shot. Therefore, the shirt has been preserved! But this is the most valuable material evidence!
   After the death of the poet, this relic was kept by L.Yu. Brick. In the mid-1950s, Lilya Yuryevna handed the shirt over to the museum for storage, about which there is a corresponding entry in the Museum's “Book of Receipts”.
   In the museum’s special storehouse, the head of the material assets sector, L. Ye. Kolesnikova, took out an oblong box and carefully unwrapped several layers of paper soaked with a special composition. It turns out that neither in the 30th year, nor in subsequent years, the examination of the shirt was carried out!  An agreement was immediately reached with the museum that the shirt would be handed over to specialists for research.

  Expertise
   The research was immediately started by the researchers of the Federal Center for Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation E. Safronsky,
   I. Kudesheva, a specialist in the field of shot marks, and the author of these lines is a forensic expert. First of all, it was necessary to establish that it was in this shirt that the poet bought in Paris that Mayakovsky was at the time of the shot.
   In photographs of Mayakovsky’s body taken at the scene, the fabric pattern, shirt texture, shape and localization of the blood stain, and the gunshot itself are clearly distinguishable. These photos have been enlarged. Experts photographed the presented shirt from the same angle and with the same magnification and carried out photo-matching. All details match.
   From the "Research": “On the left side of the front of the shirt there is one through damage of a rounded shape with dimensions of 6 x 8 mm”. So immediately burst version of the traces of two shots on the shirt. The results of microscopic examination, the shape and size of the damage, the condition of the edges of this damage, the presence of a defect (absence) of tissue made it possible to draw a conclusion about the firearm character of the hole that arose from a single projectile shot.
   It is known that, in order to determine whether a person shot himself or shot him, it is necessary to establish the distance of the shot. In forensic medicine and forensics, it is customary to distinguish between three main distances: a point-blank shot, a close-range shot and a long-range shot. If it is established that April 14, 1930 in the room of V.V. Mayakovsky sounded a shot from a long distance, which means someone shot the poet ...
   Experts had to work hard and painstakingly - to find signs that characterize the distance of the shot, sounded more than 60 years ago.
  From the “Conclusion”: “1. Damage to the shirt V.V. Mayakovsky is the entrance firearm, formed when fired from a distance of "lateral emphasis" in the direction from front to back and somewhat from right to left almost in a horizontal plane.
   2. Judging by the nature of the damage, a short-barreled weapon (for example, a gun) was used and a low-power cartridge was used.
   3. The small size of the blood-soaked area located around the entrance of the gunshot damage indicates its formation as a result of simultaneous ejection of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood flow indicates that V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying on his back. "
  So the debate about Mayakovsky’s body position after the shot is over.
  "four. The shape and small size of the blood blots located below the damage, and the peculiarity of their location along the arc indicate that they arose as a result of the dropping of small drops of blood from a small height onto the shirt in the process of moving down the right hand, splattered with blood, or from a weapon, in the same hand. "
  The detection of traces of a shot in the lateral focus, the absence of traces of struggle and self-defense are characteristic of a shot fired by one’s own hand.
  Neither the duration of the shot, nor the processing of the shirt with a special composition should serve as an obstacle when conducting complex medical ballistic examinations. Thus, the study has not only historical, but also scientific interest.

  Autograph of death
“He was without a jacket. The jacket was hanging on a chair and there was a letter, his last letter that he wrote, ”recalled the artist N.F. Denisovsky. From this room - "boats", as the poet liked to call her, rumors have reached our days that this letter was not written by Mayakovsky. Moreover, the name of the “author” of the letter was also cited.
   But to fake the handwriting so that this fake is not revealed by forensic experts is impossible. Only now work is being carried out abroad on the possibility of computer (!) Handwriting falsification.
   How many copies crossed around a dying letter made in pencil, almost without punctuation: “To everyone. Do not blame anyone for dying and please do not gossip. The dead man didn’t like this terribly ... ”
   This suicide request of the poet never occurred to anyone to take into account.
   The letter was sent in December 1991 to conduct a study in the laboratory of forensic handwriting examinations of the All-Russian Research Institute of Forensic Examinations of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (now the Federal Center for Forensic Examinations of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation). The question was asked before the experts: to establish whether the specified letter was executed by V. Mayakovsky. or another person.
   The head of the Research Institute of Forensic Handwriting Examinations, candidate of legal sciences Yu.N. Pogibko and senior researcher at the same laboratory, candidate of legal sciences R.Kh. Panova. The conclusions made by the experts are fully consistent with the research part: “Handwritten text of a dying letter on behalf of Mayakovsky V.V., beginning with the words“ To everyone. You don’t blame anyone for dying ... ”, and ending with the words“ ... You will get the rest from Gr.V.M. ”dated 04/12/30, performed by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky himself.
   This text is made by Mayakovsky V.V. under the influence of some factors "knocking down" his usual writing process, among which the most likely is an unusual psychophysiological state associated with excitement ". But the letter was written not on the day of suicide, but earlier: "Immediately before suicide, signs of unusualness would have been more pronounced."  The letter, according to experts, indeed it was written on April 12, as the poet dated it.
   Researchers V.V. Mayakovsky, reporters tried to find a criminal case on the "fact of the death of Mayakovsky." However, he was nowhere ... To put an end to the research, to check our results, it was necessary "Case". But there was no "Cause" ...

  Yezhov's folder
Materials about the death of Mayakovsky were stored in the Presidential Archive, but in a completely different folder, and were finally transferred to the special stores of the State Museum V.V. Mayakovsky. Museum Director S.E. Strizhneva kindly agreed to acquaint me with the documents.
   I am sitting in a small cozy office of Svetlana Evgenievna. In front of me is a gray cardboard folder, an inscription immediately appears in large black print: "EZHOV NIKOLAI IVANOVICH." Below is "Started on April 12, 1930. Finished on January 24, 1958." In the folder is the second folder: “Criminal case no. 02 - 29. 1930 On the suicide of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky. Started April 14, 1930. " Consequently, the case “On the suicide of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky” was under the control of the omnipotent and sinister secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, who oversaw administrative bodies, including state security bodies. In the folder there are only a few sheets of already slightly yellowed paper. Here are the spelling excerpts from the protocol of inspection of the scene:
  "PROTOCOL.
   Mayakovsky’s corpse lies on the floor.
   In the middle of the room, Mayakovsky’s corpse lies on the floor on his back. Lies head to the front door ... The head is slightly turned to the right, the eyes are open, the pupils are dilated, the mouth is half open. No rigor mortis. On the chest 3 cm above the left nipple there is a round wound with a diameter of about two-thirds of a centimeter. The circumference of the wound is slightly stained with blood. There is no outlet. On the right side on the back, in the region of the last ribs under the skin, a solid foreign body of small size is palpated. The corpse is dressed in a shirt ... on the left side of the chest, according to the described wound on the shirt, there is an irregularly shaped hole about one centimeter in diameter, around this hole the shirt is stained with blood for about ten centimeters. The circumference of the shirt hole with traces of opal. Between the legs of the corpse lies a Mauser revolver, caliber 7.65 No. 312045 (this revolver was taken from the GPU by Comrade Gendin). Not a single cartridge was in the revolver. On the left side of the corpse at a distance from the body lies an empty fired sleeve from the Mauser revolver of the specified caliber.
   Duty investigator
   /signature/. Medical expert
   /signature/. Understood / Signatures / ".
   The protocol is at an extremely low methodological level. But what we have, we have ...
   Please note: "On the right side on the back, in the region of the last ribs, a solid foreign body is felt that is not significant in size."
The presence of a “foreign object” under the skin in the region of the lower right ribs, obviously, led to the idea that the shot was fired from left to right, i.e. with your left hand. Experts are aware of the possibility of changing the direction of a bullet’s flight in the body when it encounters an obstacle.
   Professors A.P. Gromov and V.G. They indicated to Naumenko: “The density of the channel is also affected by different densities, as well as internal rebound (change of direction of movement of the bullet). Ricochet can occur not only from a meeting with a bone, but also with soft tissues. ” American experts call these bullets "wandering." And in this case, a bullet from a low-power cartridge, having met with an obstacle (vertebra, rib, etc.), slid down and, losing its lethal force, got stuck in subcutaneous tissue, where it was felt in the form of a “solid foreign body”.
  Examining the shirt, not knowing the protocol, the experts were right: the shot was fired point-blankMayakovsky’s body lay on his back. The memory of V.V. Polonskaya: "He looked directly at me and kept trying to raise his head ...".
   Next sheet:
  "Report. ... of this day at 11 o’clock I arrived at the scene of the incident on Lubyansky passage, 3, apt. No. 12, where the writer Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky shot himself ... subsequently, employees of the MUR ... arrived Agranov’s secret department ... Olievsky seized a suicide note. A medical examiner established that Mr. Mayakovsky committed suicide by shooting himself with a Mauser system revolver in his heart, after which he died instantly. ”
  V.V. Polonskaya during interrogation confirmed the facts known to us.
   On the second day after the death of V.V. Mayakovsky were summoned for interrogation by citizens of Krivtsov N.Ya., Skobelev and other neighbors. None of them categorically could say that at the time of the shot Polonskaya was in Mayakovsky’s room.
   Mayakovsky was surrounded by many familiar Chekists. But it should be remembered that in those years the word "Chekist" itself was surrounded by a romantic halo. In particular, the poet was friends with Ya.S. Agranov, head of the secret department of the OGPU. Moreover, Agranov gave Mayakovsky, a great weapon lover, a gun. Agranov, who was subsequently shot, is an ominous figure. It was Agranov who received operational information collected by the agents after the death of the poet. On the pages of once secret documents you can find the most unexpected things.
  "FROM. secretly.
   Summary
   From 9 o’clock. on the street Thieves
52, where Mayakovsky’s corpse is located, the public began to gather and by 10.20 gathered around
   3000 people. At 11 o’clock they began to let the audience pass to Mayakovsky’s tomb. Standing in line ... about the reason for Mayakovsky's suicide and the political nature of the conversations are not heard.
   Pom. beg. 3 div. Opera
   /Signature/".
   "The beginning. SB OGPU t. Agranov.
   Agent Awareness Report
   5 depart. SO OGPU No. 45 of April 18, 1930
   The news of Mayakovsky's suicide made a very strong impression on the public ... Talk exclusively about the romantic cause of death. From the conversations we can emphasize the following ...
   Conversations, gossip.
   Newspaper reports of suicide, a romantic lining, an intriguing posthumous letter aroused an unhealthy curiosity for the most part.
   ... The newspaper hype about Mayakovsky was called a deft collision for fools. It was necessary in the face of abroad, in front of the public opinion of abroad, to imagine the death of Mayakovsky as the death of a revolutionary poet who died due to personal drama.
   Syrtsov’s (investigator’s) report about Mayakovsky’s long-term illness is extremely unsuccessful. They talk about syphilis, etc.
   The beginning 5 depart. SO OGPU / Signature / ".
  Even after many years, the state security organs tried to "probe" the mood of the intelligentsia, its attitude towards Mayakovsky’s death. I happened to get acquainted with the “Protocol of conversation”
   M.M. Zoshchenko with an employee of the Leningrad Directorate of the NKGB, held on July 20, 1944:
  "22. Do you think the cause of Mayakovsky’s death is now clear?
   “She remains mysterious. It is curious that the revolver from which Mayakovsky shot himself was donated by the famous Chekist Agranov. ”
   23. Does this suggest that Mayakovsky's suicide was provocatively prepared?
   "Maybe. In any case, it is not about women. Veronika Polonskaya, about whom there were so many different guesses, told me that she was not intimately close to Mayakovsky. ”
  Striking dignity and courage, with which he kept on the so-called conversation, but in fact - the interrogation disgraced Zoshchenko.

  Forensic Opinion
  In the name of the director of the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise, the director of the State Museum of Mayakovsky S.E. A letter was sent to Strizhneva asking him to conduct a study of the Browning pistol, bullets and cartridges received by the museum from the Presidential Archive, from the materials of the Mayakovsky’s investigation ...
   Back to the Protocol: “... lies the revolver of the Mauser system, caliber 7.65”. What weapons did Mayakovsky shoot himself with? According to certificate No. 4178/22076, Mayakovsky had two pistols: the Browning system and the Bayard system - short-barreled weapons. Maybe the shot was fired from browning? But I do not believe that a professional investigator could confuse Browning with a Mauser.
   On the table in front of the experts is a fired cartridge case, a bullet and a holster with weapons. With the usual movement, Emil Grigoryevich removes from the holster ... Browning No. 268979!
   “As a result of the study, a set of signs was revealed that showed that no weapons (shots) were fired (not fired) from the weapons submitted for examination,” established S. Nikolaeva. Means is the wrong weapon attached to the case file as evidence?  The investigation of the bullet extracted from Mayakovsky’s body and the cartridge case also attached to the case was conducted by expert E.G. Safronsky. After examining the bullet, the expert dispassionately writes: “The established data indicate that the presented bullet is part of the 7.65 mm browning cartridge of the 1900 sample."
   So what's the deal? But then the expert found that the test bullet was fired from the Mauser pistol of the 1914 model. "However,  - the expert continues the study, - to verify the version of the possibility of firing the test bullet from the Browning pistol No. 268979 submitted for examination, five 7.65 mm Browning cartridges were experimentally fired from the specified pistol ... The results of the study allow us to make a definitive conclusion that the bullet submitted for examination 7 , A 65 mm 1900 browning cartridge was fired ... from a Mauser pistol of a 1914 model of 7.65 mm caliber. "   The 19.6 mm browning cartridge case presented for the study was fired, established by expert Safronsky, not in the Browning pistol No. 268979, but in the 1914 model Mauser pistol of 7.65 mm caliber.
   Hence, the shot was fired from a Mauser!  A brilliant study! It was the Mauser that was noted in the inspection protocol.
   Who replaced the weapon? Recall the protocol of the “conversation” of the NKGB officer with M.M. Zoshchenko: “It is curious that the revolver from which Mayakovsky shot himself was presented to him by the famous Chekist Agranov.” Could it be that Agranov himself replaced the weapon by attaching Mayakovsky’s browning to the case?

  Instead of an epilogue
The decision to die in the vast majority of cases is an intimate affair: to close yourself in a room and not see anyone else.
   We will never know what really happened with Vladimir Vladimirovich. He was a very large poet with an absolutely unprotected emotional life. Suicide is always associated with the deepest layers of the psyche. The spiritual world of man is a mysterious and silent cosmos ...

  Alexander MASLOV, professor of forensic medicine, forensic expert

16.09.2002